Studies in the 90's found that 6 out of 10 pregnancies were unplanned or unintended. With 3 million plus unintended pregnancies a year in the United States the bright folks at Georgetown University's Institute for Reproductive Health came up with a sly nod to the rhythm method which keys into the American fetish for devices.

For those women with a cycle between 26 and 32 days in length the researchers say that CycleBeads can be 95% effective at controlling reproduction. If used conscientiously from menarch a method like this should produce, in the girl, an expanded self awareness of the reproductive cycle. Surely such a thing would be good for both countering illness and proactively maintaining health.

Of course this device, while nicely fetished & ritualized, would seem to work fine except for that word "conscientious". It would take great dedication to reliably use CycleBeads on a day by day basis.

6/21/02:10:46:14 PM PST    comment

Yesterday the Justice Department filed its Notice of Appeal to the US Supreme Court of the injunction issued by the Philadephia trial court on the CIPA case. Here's an article from Wired covering this new development. No surprise they did this of course.

6/21/02:11:24:39 AM PST    comment